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Topic: Hardware

iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

Summary: iFixIt has uncovered one of the secrets of the iPhone 4's excellent noise cancellation -- which might have flown under the radar because it was so good.

Jason D. O'Grady

By for The Apple Core |

iFixIt has uncovered one of the secrets of the iPhone 4's excellent noise cancellation -- which might have flown under the radar because it was so good.

Apple built the iPhone 4 with two microphones for noise cancellation. Its second mic, located near the headphone jack, is for FaceTime calls and to suppress background noise.

iFixIt couldn't positively ID a 3 x 3mm chip (labeled simply "10C0" above) that it found during iPhone 4 teardown last summer, but almost a year later, part of the mystery has been solved. The chip's manufacturer has been identified as Audience -- the same company that built the A1026 voice processor found in the Nexus One (below).

Chipworks solved the mystery by "decapping" the chip which revealed an "AUDIENCE" die marking inside the chip, shown magnified below.

You can read more on the embedded digital signal processor (and its accompanying analog front ends) on the Audience earSmart A1026 product page and over at Chipworks.

Tip: iFixIt

Topics: Hardware, iPhone, Mobility, Smartphones

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47 comments
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  • The chip is custom so there is no sense to read about A1026

    Whether chip, specifically designed for Apple, is better or worse than any of standard five chips that Audience developed, including A1026, is not known -- there were no tests.
    DDERSSS
    Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      @DeRSSS Was the no test remarks an actual Apple Ploy? Hard to put out any product with some type of benchmarking targets or data. <a title="Local Google Places" href="http://extremesocialmedia.org/">Local Google Places</a>
      esm2012
      Reply Vote

      • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

        @esm2012
        Awesome...This chip is pretty cool. <H1><a href="http://www.my-phoenixchiropractor.com">Phoenix chiropractor</a></H1>
        epark732
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      • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

        @esm2012
        This was an excellent read, as always. Great stuff like this is what keeps me coming back.
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        epark732
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    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      That was a very interesting read. I look forward to checking back in the future to see if any relevant content has been added, thank you for making this available to us. <strong><a href="http://www.my-oklahomacitychiropractor.com.com">Oklahoma City chiropractor</a></strong>
      epark732
      Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      @DeRSSS amazing how small these tings are inside, hard to think just 10 eyar ago it was the size of massive breifcase lol .. was the no test <strong><a href="http://glaucomaeyedrops.com/">glaucoma eyes drops</a></strong>
      remoakrs an actually apple play?... dont think it was....
      timmyuk
      Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      @DeRSSS

      Apple built the iPhone 4 with two microphones for noise cancellation. Its second mic, <strong><a href="http://learnviolinonlinehq.com/">learn violin online</a></strong>located near the headphone jack, is for FaceTime calls and to suppress background noise.
      And when have anyone really ever used that, lol?

      Both Google and Microsoft<strong><a href="http://glaucomaeyedrops.com/">glaucoma eyes drops</a></strong> transmit location data back to their respective servers. While the iPhone <strong><a href="http://brighteyesdrops.com/">bright eyes drops</a></strong> maintained a database on the phone the other two maintained their databases on remote servers. Which is worse?
      The answer is clearly that what Apple is doing is worse! No doubt about that.
      obitwo
      Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      @DeRSSS It amazing the lengths that companies will go to to keep their technology secret, yet a simple de-capping can reveal it so simply... Corporate espionage ? Any way whatever Apple does is generally pretty good, the Iphone is no exception. I have been using the Iphone4 in my <a href="http://www.ozbootcamp.com.au" style="color: black; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none ! important; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent ! important;">Bootcamp Sydney</a> to run a boxing timer while I hold pads for clients. I wonder if it is using this chip lol.
      npmfitness
      Reply Vote

  • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

    This excellent feature has flown under the radar so long because the tech media and everyone else was bashing Apple for the overblown issues like the so-called "Antennagate" and "Locationgate"...
    athynz
    Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      @athynz
      ?Locationgate? affects more than just Apple. Both Google and Microsoft transmit location data back to their respective servers. While the iPhone maintained a database on the phone the other two maintained their databases on remote servers. Which is worse? Having a database on your phone, or a remote server?
      Rick_K
      Reply Vote

      • Hmmmm ... lemme think ...

        @Rick_K ... oh, I know! Sneakily sending the data back "home" to Google or MS who can then know where you are every second you have your phone on you. Talk about life imitating (Eagle Eye) art. Yikes!
        jscott69
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

        How else are they going to provide real-time traffic information and in Google's case, the local street traffic is priceless. I don't mind trading off my location when it is annoymous.
        SonofChef
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

        @Rick_K It's amazing and pathetic how Apple was dragged through the streets about it by all the haters but they sure got quiet when it was revealed that Google and MS do they same thing.
        non-biased
        Reply Vote

      • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

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        hathawaya41
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      • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

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    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      wow, dont people relize that apples phones are not the only ones that suffer the Locationgate effect. <strong><a href="http://brighteyesdrops.com/glaucoma-eye-drops/" style="color: #353535">glaucoma eye drops</a></strong> There were a lot of videos released at the time i remember showing all the top phones having this issue.

      Same with location the big G and the not so big <strong><a href="http://brighteyesdrops.com/glaucoma-symptoms/" style="color: #353535">glaucoma symptoms</a></strong> MSoft send data back on location on all their phones, back to their servers, be it apple kept it on a db on the phone ( maybe a tut tut there LOL.. ) but storing <strong><a href="http://brighteyesdrops.com/blurred-vision/" style="color: #353535">blurred vision</a></strong> on a remote server.. no better if u ask me - infact - worse at least my iphone is no topen to hackers (be the masses )
      timmyuk
      Reply Vote

  • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

    Honest opinion those that use them - is noise cancellation better on the iPhone 4 than other phones? Or is it just because you can't use an iPhone 4 where there isn't much phone signal (ie no electronic crackle) = antennagate?
    HugoM
    Reply Vote

    • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

      @HugoM Nice attempt to take a cheap shot at the iPhone but in all honesty from my experience the iPhone 4 call quality is superior to that of other phones I have used including past iPhones. Even with the overblown antennagate I don't experience dropped calls on my iPhone 4 like I occasionally would with my previous iPhones.
      non-biased
      Reply Vote

  • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

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  • RE: iPhone 4's noise cancellation chip unmasked

    Thanks for the upto date information, This sound pretty promising.



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